Near the village of Llanycefn, in Pembrokeshire, in south-west Wales, stands a small stone cottage.
The Llainfadyn Cottage in Rhostryfan was originally a ty unnos.
The house would have been originally built of a mixture of clay, mud,turfand straw.
Any other materials would have required more effort and longer time.
Working throughout the night, they would have erected four simple walls and added a thatched roof.
Penrhos Cottage in Pembrokeshire.
Penrhos Cottage in Pembrokeshire is one example of a ty unnos building.
This two-room house once served as a home for generations of families, before it was abandoned.
It was purchased by the local authority in the 1970s and turned into a museum.
The Llainfadyn cottage, built in 1762 in Rhostryfan, Gwynedd, is another example of a ty unnos.
It is been serving as a museum since 1962.
The last known ty unnos was built in 1882 in Flintshire by four brothers from Lancashire.
A fictionalized account of their adventure appears in Oliver Onions' 1914 novelMushroom Town.
The concept of the one night house is not restricted to Wales.
Similar customs and folklore exist in Ireland, Italy, France and Turkey.
The Ugly House near Betws-Y-Coedanother example of a ty unnos.
Photo credit:Steve Daniels/Wikimedia Commons
A similar tradition exist in Turkey.
The origin of this remarkably pervasive folklore is hard to trace.
In reality, nobody clearly knows where this ancient subversive legend came from.
Llainfadyn Cottage in Rhostryfan.
